"Indigenous peoples have occupied the island of Puerto Rico since at least 3000 B.C. Due to the demographic shifts that occurred after European contact, the origin(s) of these ancient populations, and their genetic relationship to present-day islanders, are unclear. We use ancient DNA to characterize the population history and genetic legacies of pre-contact Indigenous communities from Puerto Rico. Bone, tooth and dental calculus samples were collected from 124 individuals from three pre-contact archaeological sites: Tibes, Punta Candelero and Paso del Indio. Despite poor DNA preservation, we used target enrichment and high-throughput sequencing to obtain complete mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA) from 45 individuals and autosomal genotypes from two individuals. We found a high proportion of Native American mtDNA haplogroups A2 and C1 in the pre-contact Puerto Rico sample (40% and 44%, respectively). This distribution, as well as the haplotypes represented, support a primarily Amazonian South American origin for these populations, and mirrors the Native American mtDNA diversity patterns found in present-day islanders. Three mtDNA haplotypes from pre-contact Puerto Rico persist among Puerto Ricans and other Caribbean islanders, indicating that present-day populations are reservoirs of pre-contact mtDNA diversity. Lastly, we find similarity in autosomal ancestry patterns between pre-contact individuals from Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, suggesting a shared component of Indigenous Caribbean ancestry with close affinity to South American populations. Our findings contribute to a more complete reconstruction of pre-contact Caribbean population history and explore the role of Indigenous peoples in shaping the biocultural diversity of present-day Puerto Ricans and other Caribbean islanders."
]]>PaleogeneticsAngelahttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39237-The-genetic-legacy-of-pre-contact-Puerto-RicoPioneer of paleogenetics: Max Planck researcher Svante Pääbohttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39219-Pioneer-of-paleogenetics-Max-Planck-researcher-Svante-Pääbo?goto=newpost
Thu, 12 Sep 2019 12:45:07 GMT

The rich linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity of Ethiopia provides an unprecedented opportunity to understand the level to which cultural factors correlate with -- and shape -- genetic structure in human populations. Using primarily novel genetic variation data covering 1,268 Ethiopians representing 68 different ethnic groups, together with information on individuals' birthplaces, linguistic/religious practices and 31 cultural practices, we disentangle the effects of geographic distance, elevation, and social factors upon shaping the genetic structure of Ethiopians today. We provide examples of how social behaviours have directly -- and strongly -- increased genetic differences among present-day peoples. We also show the fluidity of intermixing across linguistic and religious groups. We identify correlations between cultural and genetic patterns that likely indicate a degree of social selection involving recent intermixing among individuals that have certain practices in common. In addition to providing insights into the genetic structure and history of Ethiopia, including how they correlate with current linguistic classifications, these results identify the most important cultural and geographic proxies for genetic differentiation and provide a resource for designing sampling protocols for future genetic studies involving Ethiopians.

"Ancient human remains found in various sites of Indus Valley hardly yield intact DNA. The hot and humid conditions in these regions destroy any trace of DNA. To overcome this, Reich and post-doctoral scientist Vagheesh Narasimhan at Harvard, teamed up with Vasant Shinde from the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Pune and Niraj Rai from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in Lucknow. They painstakingly screened 61 skeletal samples excavated from graves in Rakhigarhi and were eventually able to detect a very small amount of DNA in a single sample from a woman’s remains.After more than hundred attempts, they were able to sequence the DNA. Comparing this DNA with those of 11 individuals from two sites in Turkmenistan and Iran, the researchers prepared a genetic profile of the Rakhigarhi woman.The profile, they say, has signs of Iranian-related ancestry but no evidence of pastoralists who lived in the grasslands of Asia and Europe. “We say ‘Iranian-related’ because we don’t know where they lived,” Reich says. They could have lived in the Iranian plateau, but the team’s data point to them having lived in South Asia for many thousands of years before the Indus Valley Civilisation, he adds."

"Ancient DNA studies have shown that the hunter-gatherers in western Anatolia, a region in modern-day Turkey, adopted agriculture from their neighbours in the east. They then spread agriculture as they moved into Europe.“Something similar might have happened in the vicinity of South Asia, where a hunter-gatherer population could have copied farming innovations from their eastern neighbors, and then spread them further through movement of people,” Reich points out."

The bolded part is an exaggeration if not absolutely false. I would be stunned if Reich said that.

]]>PaleogeneticsAngelahttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39182-The-genetic-origins-of-the-Indus-Valley-CivilizationGenes reveal kinship between 3 victims of Mongol army in 1238 massacrehttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39174-Genes-reveal-kinship-between-3-victims-of-Mongol-army-in-1238-massacre?goto=newpost
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 19:14:36 GMTResearchersfrom the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Russian Academy ofSciences Institute of Archaeology have used DNA testing to prove close genetickinship between three individuals buried in a mass grave following the captureof the Russian city Yaroslavl by Batu Khan's Mongol army in 1238. This confirmsthe hypothesis made by archaeologists and anthropologists after studying theremains of 15 persons interred on a historic estate."Inaddition to recreating the overall picture of the fall of the city in 1238, wenow see the tragedy of one family," said Asya Engovatova, deputy directorof the Institute of Archaeology, RAS, and head of excavations on the Yaroslavlsite. "DNA analysis has shown that there were remains of genetically relatedindividuals representing three generations. Anthropological data suggest thesewere a grandmother aged 55 or older, her daughter aged 30 to 40 and grandson, ayoung man of about 20. A fourth member of the family related through the femaleline was buried in the neighboring mass grave.""Importantly,these family relations were initially postulated by archaeologists andanthropologists, and then confirmed by genetic data," the scientist added."This makes our research more evidential and allows us to discuss the13th-century events and way of life with more certainty."Theresearchers announced their discovery at the eighth Alekseyev Readings, aninternational conference held Aug. 26-28 at the Anuchin Research Institute andMuseum of Anthropology in Moscow.Historicalrecords name Yaroslavl among other cities devastated by Batu Khan's army duringhis military campaign against the Grand Duchy of Vladimir in the early 13thcentury. However, the true scope of the tragedy only became clear in 2005, whensalvage excavations began on the site of the city's Assumption Cathedral, builtin the early 13th century, demolished in 1937, and restored between 2004-2010.Over just five years, nine mass graves and over 300 buried individuals who haddied a violent death were found, more than in the other ravaged cities. Thefindings of prior research then enabled a detailed reconstruction of theevents: It was proved that the unearthed victims died during the capture ofYaroslavl by Batu Khan's forces in February 1238."BatuKhan's conquest was the greatest national tragedy, surpassing any other eventin cruelty and destruction. It is not by chance that it is among the few suchevents that made its way into the Russian folklore," Engovatova said."What we now know about those raids suggests that chronicle descriptionsof 'a city drowned in blood' were not merely a figure of speech.""Thefirst third of the 13th century saw the conquest of China, Central Asia, theCaucasus, Volga Bulgaria, and the part of the East European Plain whereYaroslavl lies," the researcher went on. "Some publications of thepast 10-15 years took the viewpoint that the inclusion of Rus [the present-dayRussia] into the Golden Horde was almost peaceful and voluntary, withpractically no major atrocities committed. But it is now obvious this was notreally the case."One of themass graves -- now identified as No. 76 -- was located at the center of theinner city citadel. There, corpses were buried in a shallow pit on a richhomestead burned during the assault on the city. The main wooden house and theoutbuildings on the estate contained many artifacts, pointing to the highstatus of the owners.That gravein particular attracted the researchers' attention, because the pit for it wasdug on purpose, while the other mass graves nearby were located in thebasements of houses and burned-down outbuildings. That kind of burialcontradicted the norms of the day and did not observe the ritual. The 15 men,women, and children in the pit were unearthed in different poses, and some ofthe corpses had badly decomposed by the time they were interred. This stronglysuggests that the bodies were simply disposed of in that way, for sanitaryreasons.Many ofthe corpses bore marks of a violent death on the bones -- traces of unhealedpiercing and cutting wounds. Some of the bones were burnt, pointing to the firethat ravaged the city. Flylarvae, shown in figure 1 (left), were found in the remains, indicatingadvanced stages of decomposition and allowing the researchers to date theburial. By identifying the blowfly species, entomologists knew at what averagedaily temperature their larvae would reach the observed stage of development.That temperature corresponded to late May or early June conditions."Thedata on the time they were buried are very precise and support theanthropologists' hypothesis that the corpses had partly decomposed. Thesepeople were killed, and their bodies remained lying in the snow for a fairlylong time. In April or May, flies started to multiply on the remains, and inlate May or early June they were buried in a pit on the homestead, which iswhere they probably had lived," Engovatova said.Anthropologistsstudying the remains were the first to hypothesize kinship between some of theburied individuals. This was suggested by epigenetic feature similarities: thepresence of a birth defect known as spina bifida, a persistent metopic suture,an expressed osteoma on the cranial vault, and intercondylar fossacharacteristics.Theanthropology group also inferred possible intermarriages within the family fromcertain abnormalities that are characteristic of children born from suchmarriages. Apart from that, the members of this family suffered from toothdecay more than the other buried individuals. Since it predominantly developsin connection with a diet rich in sugars and carbohydrates, the familyapparently consumed more sugar and honey than their average contemporaries.KharisMustafin and Irina Alborova led the research team from MIPT's Historical Genetics,Radiocarbon Analysis and Applied Physics Lab, which undertook a complexmolecular and genetic study of the remains of eight buried individuals. Theteam cleaned the archaeological samples of bones and teeth, pulverized them,and recovered the ancient DNA. Its analysis revealed the same mitochondrial DNAmutations in three individuals, while studying autosomal DNA markers suppliedthe data on how closely the persons were related. In addition, onemitochondrial DNA line pointed to a fourth possible maternal relative, buriedin a neighboring grave."Geneticstudies have confirmed the relationship between three of them. They wereprobably members of the same wealthy, high-ranking family," Engovatovasaid. "The location of the estate at the center of the citadel confirmsthis, and so do the archaeological finds made on the estate. Even a hangingseal was found. This might well be the very family that owned the richhomestead excavated 3 meters from the grave."

]]>PaleogeneticsJovialishttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39174-Genes-reveal-kinship-between-3-victims-of-Mongol-army-in-1238-massacrehttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39146-DNA-to-solve-mystery-of-Napoleon-s-general-lost-in-Russia?goto=newpost
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 13:41:18 GMTArchaeologists are set to unveil the answer to a 200-year-old question over the remains of a French general who died during Napoleon's 1812 campaign in Russia.

Charles Etienne Gudin was hit by a cannonball in the Battle of Valutino on August 19 near Smolensk, a city west of Moscow close to the border with Belarus.

His leg was amputated and he died three days later from gangrene, aged 44.

The French army cut out his heart, now buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, but the site of the rest of his remains was never known, until researchers found a likely skeleton this summer.

"As soon as I saw the skeleton with just one leg, I knew that we had our man," the head of the Franco-Russian team that discovered the remains in July, Marina Nesterova, told AFP.

Genetic analysis is being carried out to confirm the identity, using DNA from one of the general's descendants, with the results to be announced on Thursday.

Gudin is said to have been one of Napoleon's favourite generals and the two men attended military school together. His name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe monument in Paris.

The fresh search for his remains has been underway since May, funded by a Franco-Russian group headed by Pierre Malinowski, a historian and former soldier with ties to the French far-right and support from the Kremlin.

The team in Smolensk first followed the memoirs of a subordinate of Gudin, Marshall Davout, who organised the funeral and described a mausoleum made of four cannon barrels pointing upward, said Nikolai Makarov, the director of the Russian Institute of Archaeology.

When that trail ran cold, they checked another theory by a witness of the funeral and found pieces of a wooden casket buried under an old dance floor in the city park.

A preliminary report concluded that the skeleton belonged to a man who died aged 40-45.

Gudin's death near Smolensk came near the beginning of Napoleon's march toward Moscow, 400 kilometres (250 miles) further east.

Napoleon had hoped to defeat the Russian army at Valutino and sign an advantageous treaty, but it managed to escape and Russian Tsar Alexander refused to discuss peace.

"This battle could have been decisive if Napoleon hadn't underestimated the Russians," Malinowski said.

"Heavy losses in this battle showed Napoleon that he was going to go through hell in Russia."

Napoleon's march on Russia ended in a disastrous retreat as Russians used scorched earth tactics and even ordered Moscow to be burnt to sap Napoleon's resources.

Less than 10 percent of his Grand Armee survived Russian invasion.

https://www.france24.com/en/20190828...lost-in-russia
]]>PaleogeneticsJovialishttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39146-DNA-to-solve-mystery-of-Napoleon-s-general-lost-in-RussiaHas there been any genetic study on the Sarmatians over the centuries?https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39110-Has-there-been-any-genetic-study-on-the-Sarmatians-over-the-centuries?goto=newpost
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 16:42:54 GMTI am mostly interested in it because according to some sources, about 300,000-500,000 were resettled in Thrace, Macedonia and Italy in the 4th century AD and the rest were slavicized and absorbed by the Proto-Slavs. It really throws the continuity argument of a lot of Balkan ethnicities into...I am mostly interested in it because according to some sources, about 300,000-500,000 were resettled in Thrace, Macedonia and Italy in the 4th century AD and the rest were slavicized and absorbed by the Proto-Slavs. It really throws the continuity argument of a lot of Balkan ethnicities into turmoil. Those Roman and Byzantine emperors and later the Ottoman sultans really messed up the admixture of the Balkans!
]]>Paleogeneticsbigsnake49https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39110-Has-there-been-any-genetic-study-on-the-Sarmatians-over-the-centuriesaDNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in Indiahttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39100-aDNA-from-the-skeletons-of-Roopkund-Lake-reveals-Mediterranean-migrants-in-India?goto=newpost
Tue, 20 Aug 2019 18:46:03 GMTSituated at over 5,000 meters above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains, Roopkund Lake is home to the scattered skeletal remains of several hundred individuals of unknown origin. We report genome-wide ancient DNA for 38 skeletons from Roopkund Lake, and find that they cluster into three distinct...Situated at over 5,000 meters above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains, Roopkund Lake is home to the scattered skeletal remains of several hundred individuals of unknown origin. We report genome-wide ancient DNA for 38 skeletons from Roopkund Lake, and find that they cluster into three distinct groups. A group of 23 individuals have ancestry that falls within the range of variation of present-day South Asians. A further 14 have ancestry typical of the eastern Mediterranean. We also identify one individual with Southeast Asian-related ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicates that these remains were not deposited simultaneously. Instead, all of the individuals with South Asian-related ancestry date to ~800 CE (but with evidence of being deposited in more than one event), while all other individuals date to ~1800 CE. These differences are also reflected in stable isotope measurements, which reveal a distinct dietary profile for the two main groups.

...

The Roopkund_B cluster is more puzzling. It is tempting to hypothesize that the Roopkund_B individuals descend from Indo-Greek populations established after the time of Alexander the Great, who may have contributed ancestry to some present-day groups like the Kalash21. However, this is unlikely, as such a group would be expected to have admixture with groups with more typical South Asian ancestry (as the Kalash do), or would be expected to be inbred and to have relatively low genetic diversity. However, the Roopkund_B individuals have evidence for neither pattern (Supplementary Note 9). Combining different lines of evidence, the data suggest instead that what we have sampled is a group of unrelated men and women who were born in the eastern Mediterranean during the period of Ottoman political control. As suggested by their consumption of a predominantly terrestrial, rather than marine-based diet, they may have lived in an inland location, eventually traveling to and dying in the Himalayas. Whether they were participating in a pilgrimage, or were drawn to Roopkund Lake for other reasons, is a mystery. It would be surprising for a Hindu pilgrimage to be practiced by a large group of travelers from the eastern Mediterranean where Hindu practices have not been common; Hindu practice in this time might be more plausible for a southeast Asian individual with an ancestry type like that seen in the Roopkund_C individual. Given that the Roopkund_B and Roopkund_C individuals died only in the last few centuries, an important direction for future investigation will be to carry out archival research to determine if there were reports of large foreign traveling parties dying in the region over the last few hundred years.

I don't see much new. As always, however, he's a very good summarizer and writes very clearly.

I wonder if it's the Reich Lab who asked him to take a look at all the genetic data and try to match it to his knowledge of the archaeological record and the linguistics.

"But before 4500 BC, CHG ancestry appeared among theEHG hunter-fishers in the middle Volga steppes from Samara toSaratov, at the same time that domesticated cattle and sheepgoats appeared. The Reich lab now has whole-genome aDNAdata from more than 30 individuals from three Eneolithiccemeteries in the Volga steppes between the cities of Saratovand Samara (Khlopkov Bugor, Khvalynsk, and Ekaterinovka),all dated around the middle of the fifth millennium BC."

"three Khvalynsk individuals, dated about 4500 BC, showed EHGancestry admixed substantially with CHG, and not a trace ofAnatolian Farmer ancestry, so the CHG was a Hotu-Cave orKotias-Cave type of un-admixed CHG. The proportion of CHGin the Wang et al. (2018) bar graphs is about 20-30% in twoindividuals, substantially less CHG than in Yamnaya; but thethird Khvalynsk individual had more than 50% CHG, likeYamnaya. The ca. 30 additional unpublished individuals fromthree middle Volga Eneolithic cemeteries, including Khvalynsk,preliminarily show the same admixed EHG/CHG ancestry invarying proportions. Most of the males belonged to Ychromosome haplogroup R1b1a, like almost all Yamnaya males,but Khvalynsk also had some minority Y-chromosomehaplogroups (R1a, Q1a, J, I2a2) that do not appear or appearonly rarely (I2a2) in Yamnaya graves."

"Wang et al. (2018) discovered that this middle Volgamating network extended down to the North Caucasiansteppes, where at cemeteries such as Progress-2 andVonyuchka, dated 4300 BC, the same Khvalynsk-type ancestryappeared, an admixture of CHG and EHG with no AnatolianFarmer ancestry, with steppe-derived Y-chromosomehaplogroup R1b. These three individuals in the North Caucasussteppes had higher proportions of CHG, overlapping Yamnaya.Without any doubt, a CHG population that was not admixedwith Anatolian Farmers mated with EHG populations in theVolga steppes and in the North Caucasus steppes before 4500BC. We can refer to this admixture as pre-Yamnaya, because itmakes the best currently known genetic ancestor for EHG/CHGR1b Yamnaya genomes. The Progress-2 individuals from NorthCaucasus steppe graves lived not far from the pre-Maikopfarmers of the Belaya valley, but they did not exchange mates,according to their DNA. The hunter-fisher camps that first appeared on the lowerVolga around 6200 BC could represent the migration northwardof un-admixed CHG hunter-fishers from the steppe parts of thesoutheastern Caucasus, a speculation that awaits confirmationfrom aDNA. After 5000 BC domesticated animals appeared inthese same sites in the lower Volga, and in new ones, and ingrave sacrifices at Khvalynsk and Ekaterinovka. CHG genes anddomesticated animals flowed north up the Volga, and EHGgenes flowed south into the North Caucasus steppes, and thetwo components became admixed. After approximately 4500 BCthe Khvalynsk archaeological culture united the lower andmiddle Volga archaeological sites into one variablearchaeological culture that kept domesticated sheep, goats, andcattle (and possibly horses). In my estimation, Khvalynsk mightrepresent the oldest phase of PIE."

"theEneolithic populations of Dnieper-Donets II type seem to havelimited their mating network to the rich, strategic region theyoccupied, centered on the Rapids. The absence of CHG showsthat they did not mate frequently if at all with the people of theVolga steppes, a surprising but undeniable discovery."

"among 48 individuals withwhole-genome aDNA from 16 Neolithic and Copper Agecemeteries in Bulgaria and Romania dated 5800-4300 BC, onlythree showed any ancestry from a steppe mating network(Mathieson et al. 2018). Around 95% of the southeasternEuropean farmer population tested had no steppe relatives overa period of 1500 years. They must have actively avoidedmarriage with steppe people, a rule broken only among the elitetowards the end of the Eneolithic. All three of the steppe-admixed exceptions were from theVarna region (Mathieson et al. 2018). One of them was thefamous “golden man’ at Varna (Krause et al. 2016), Grave 43,whose steppe ancestry was the most doubtful of the three. If hehad steppe ancestry, it was sufficiently distant (five+generations before him) that he was not a statisticallysignificant outlier, but he was displaced in the steppe direction,away from the central values of the majority of typicalAnatolian Farmers at Varna and elsewhere. The other two, atVarna (grave 158, a 5-7-year-old girl) and Smyadovo (grave 29,a male 20-25 years old), were statistically significant outlierswho had recent steppe ancestry (consistent with grandparentsor great-grandparents) of the EHG/CHG Khvalynsk/Progress-2type, not of the Dnieper Rapids EHG/WHG type. Again, this issurprising, because the Volga is much farther away from Varnathan the Dnieper. All three graves were unusually wellequipped with typical Varna pottery and ornaments, and grave43 was spectacularly rich. Steppe people occasionally becamethe parents of children whose local parents belonged to OldEuropean elite families, presumably as the result ofarrangements tied to political and economic negotiations. Butthe children were kept in the tell towns and lived and diedthere. Aside from these three elite-looking Varna-regionindividuals dated 4650-4450 BC (Krause et al. 2016; Mathiesonet al. 2018: Supplementary Materials), the majority of Eneolithicfarmers who lived near the steppe region had no stepperelatives, mirroring the absence of Anatolian Farmer ancestryin Eneolithic steppe cemeteries."

I find some of the following pretty speculative:

"I believe that the Suvorovo-Cernavoda Imovement into the lower Danube valley and the Balkans about4300 BC separated early PIE-speakers (pre-Anatolian) from thesteppe population that stayed behind in the steppes and thatlater developed into late PIE and Yamnaya. This archaeological transition marked the breakdown ofthe mating barrier between steppe and Anatolian Farmermating networks.

After this 4300-4200 BC event, AnatolianFarmer ancestry began to pop up in the steppes. The currently oldest sample with Anatolian Farmer ancestry in the steppes inan individual at Aleksandriya, a Sredni Stog cemetery on theDonets in eastern Ukraine. Sredni Stog has often been discussedas a possible Yamnaya ancestor in Ukraine (Anthony 2007: 239-254). The single published grave is dated about 4000 BC (4045–3974 calBC/ 5215±20 BP/ PSUAMS-2832) and shows 20%Anatolian Farmer ancestry and 80% Khvalynsk-type steppeancestry (CHG&EHG). His Y-chromosome haplogroup wasR1a-Z93, similar to the later Sintashta culture and to South Asian Indo-Aryans, and he is the earliest known sample toshow the genetic adaptation to lactase persistence (I3910T).."

He's on firmer ground here, imo.

"The west-to-east gene flow that began after the 4300-4200 BC collapse could have continued into the Yamnayaperiod. Part of the WHG that Wang et al. (2018) detected inYamnaya genomes could have been picked up in the Dniepervalley, where many Dnieper-Donets individuals had WHGancestry, possibly lessening the necessity for mate exchangeswith Globular Amphorae. Probably, late PIE (Yamnaya) evolved in the same part ofthe steppes—the Volga-Caucasus steppes between the lowerDon, the lower and middle Volga, and the North Caucasuspiedmont—where early PIE evolved, and where appropriateEHG/CHG admixtures and Y-chromosome haplogroups wereseen already in the Eneolithic (without Anatolian Farmer).There have always been archaeologists who argued for anorigin of Yamnaya in the Volga steppes, including Gimbutas(1963), Merpert (1974), and recently Morgunova (2014), whoargued that this was where Repin-type ceramics, an importantearly Yamnaya pottery type, first appeared in dated contextsbefore Yamnaya, about 3600 BC. The genetic evidence isconsistent with Yamnaya EHG/CHG origins in the VolgaCaucasus steppes. Also, if contact with the Maikop culture wasa fundamental cause of the innovations in transport andmetallurgy that defined the Yamnaya culture, then the lowerDon-North Caucasus-lower Volga steppes, closest to the NorthCaucasus, would be where the earliest phase is expected."

" I would still guess that the Darkveti-Meshoko culture andits descendant Maikop culture established the linguisticancestor of the Northwest Caucasian languages inapproximately the region where they remained. I also acceptthe general consensus that the appearance of the hierarchicalMaikop culture about 3600 BC had profound effects on preYamnaya and early Yamnaya steppe cultures. Yamnayametallurgy borrowed from the Maikop culture two-sided molds,tanged daggers, cast shaft hole axes with a single blade, andarsenical copper. Wheeled vehicles might have entered thesteppes through Maikop, revolutionizing steppe economies andmaking Yamnaya pastoral nomadism possible after 3300 BC. So it is still possible that steppe people interacted asraiders and traders and perhaps even political clients of theMaikop people, with interaction intense enough to makeleading political figures in the pre-Yamnaya steppes bilingual inthe Maikop (Northwest Caucasian?) language. Some Maikopwomen might also have become the wives of some preYamnaya men. If their speech was copied by others aroundthem, the linguistic exchanges and interferences suggested byBomhard could have occurred and spread without an equallylarge exchange of mates. But if the interpretations presentedhere are supported, mate exchanges between Maikop and preYamnaya or Yamnaya people were few in number, rare infrequency, and when they did happen, involved primarilyMaikop women, not men. If more mating had occurred, wewould see more EHG among the Maikop genomes and moreAnatolian Farmer among Yamnaya steppe genomes than we dosee. Of course another, final, possibility, consistent with thearchaeological and genetic evidence presented here, is thatthere were two phases of interference from Caucasianlanguages in two periods. The first, perhaps responsible forsome of the basic morphological and phonological traitsBomhard detected, could have occurred in the fifth millenniumBC and involved very archaic eastern Caucasian languages thathad moved to the lower Volga steppes with CHG people, wherethey intermarried with Samara-based EHG pre-Uralic people tocreate early PIE and the Khvalynsk culture and a newEHG/CHG genetic admixture; and the second phase, which left a Northwest Caucasian imprint over late PIE, perhaps moresuperficial (lexical) than the earlier interference, could havebeen during the Maikop period, but without a major geneticexchange between Maikop and Yamnaya."

I would opt for the latter.
]]>PaleogeneticsAngelahttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/39034-David-Anthony-on-the-Indo-Europeans-againJewish populations - a subtle distinctionhttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/38979-Jewish-populations-a-subtle-distinction?goto=newpost
Sun, 04 Aug 2019 13:49:36 GMTI've run a comparative autosomal analysis of six different Jewish populations (Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Tunisian, Yemeni, Iranian and Iraqi). The main distinctions are as expected - e.g. some Central European admixture within Ashkenazis and some Iberian and African admixture within Sephardis and Tunisians.

However, the results also indicate a subtler distinction - Ashkenazis and Iranians each show a substantial LMBA Armenian component (comprising an estimated 17-24% of their non-Central European/non-Iranian aDNA), compared to the other four Jewish populations which show no LMBA Armenian at all. (Moreover, the same analysis estimates no prior Iranian admixture within Ashkenazis.)

Any suggestions for possible explanations?
]]>PaleogeneticsPiphttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/38979-Jewish-populations-a-subtle-distinctionhttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/38968-Doubts-about-the-Tanzania_Zanzibar_First-Millennium-aDNA-sample?goto=newpost
Fri, 02 Aug 2019 08:56:42 GMTI decided to post this doubt of mine here so that someone might perhaps help clarify what's happening with the average population DNA sample named TZA_Zanzibar_FirstMillennium in Global25 datasheets. I have googled to try to find the paper that that sample comes from, but couldn't find it. The issue is that, running the sample into nMonte software to model its ancestry, it's clear that it's just too much of an outlier to be believed: the sample is closest to ancient Iberian samples and, among modern populations, also to Iberians. Okay, I wouldn't be totally surprised by a Portuguese trader/sailor being buried in Zanzibar in the 16th or 17th century (though I still think that would be a real find, as they must've been a tiny minority of the total population), but first millennium? Does anyone have any information about that DNA sample, the study that analyzed and released it, the dating and archaeological circumstances? For now I'll just assume that the labeling was totally wrong and it in fact dates to the last centuries.
]]>PaleogeneticsYgorcshttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/38968-Doubts-about-the-Tanzania_Zanzibar_First-Millennium-aDNA-sampleCorsican DNAhttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/38967-Corsican-DNA?goto=newpost
Fri, 02 Aug 2019 00:17:25 GMThttps://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/722165v1
Genome-wide analysis of Corsican population reveals a close affinity with Northern and Central Italyhttps://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/722165v1

Genome-wide analysis of Corsican population reveals a close affinity with Northern and Central Italy
]]>Paleogeneticstorziohttps://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/38967-Corsican-DNA